Peter J Denning

2 weeks ago | cacm.acm.org | Peter J Denning |David Geer |R. Colin Johnson |Carlos Baquero

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.” These words were spoken by the political scientist and philosopher Hannah Arendt in 1974. She was discussing how totalitarian governments, through their propaganda, might induce such wide cynicism that people lose faith in the truth.

2 months ago | cacm.acm.org | Peter J Denning |Yael Erez |Orit Hazzan |R. Colin Johnson

We claim two things about our profession. Computer science studies information processes, natural and artificial. Computer science is a master of abstraction. To reconcile the two, we say that abstraction is the key that unlocks the complexity of designing and managing information processes. Where did we get the idea that our field is a master of abstractions? This idea is cosmic background radiation left over from the beginning bangs of our field.